The information network known as the World Wide Web (WWW), which is a subset of the well-known Internet, is arguably the most complete source of publicly accessible information available. Anyone with a suitable Internet appliance such as a personal computer with a standard Internet connection may access (go on-line) and navigate to information pages (termed web pages) stored on Internet-connected servers for the purpose of garnering information and initiating transactions with hosts of such servers and pages.
Many companies offer various subscription services accessible via the Internet. For example, many people now do their banking, stock trading, shopping, and so forth from the comfort of their own homes via Internet access. Typically, a user, through subscription, has access to personalized and secure WEB pages for such functions. By typing in a user name and a password or other personal identification code, a user may obtain information, initiate transactions, buy stock, and accomplish a myriad of other tasks.
One problem that is encountered by an individual who has several or many such subscriptions to Internet-brokered services is that there are invariably many passwords and/or log-in codes to be used. Often a same password or code cannot be used for every service, as the password or code may already be taken by another user. A user may not wish to supply a code unique to the user such as perhaps a social security number because of security issues, including quality of security, that may vary from service to service. Additionally, many users at their own volition may choose different passwords for different sites so as to have increased security, which in fact also increases the number of passwords a user may have.
Another issue that can plague a user who has many passworded subscriptions is the fact that they must bookmark many WEB pages in a computer cache so that they may quickly find and access the various services. For example, in order to reserve and pay for airline travel, a user must connect to the Internet, go to his/her book-marks file and select an airline page. The user then has to enter a user name and password, and follow on-screen instructions once the page is delivered. If the user wishes to purchase tickets from the WEB site, and wishes to transfer funds from an on-line banking service, the user must also look for and select the personal bank or account page to initiate a funds transfer for the tickets. Different user names and passwords may be required to access these other pages, and things get quite complicated.
Although this preceding example is merely exemplary, it is generally known that much work related to finding WEB pages, logging in with passwords, and the like is required to successfully do business on the WEB.
A service known to the inventor, and described in the related case Ser. No. 09/208,740 listed under the cross-reference to related documents section, provides a WEB service that allows a user to store all of his password protected pages in one location such that browsing and garnering information from them is much simplified. A feature of the above service allows a user to program certain tasks into the system such that requested tasks are executed by an agent (software) based on user instruction. The service stores user password and log-in information and uses the information to log-in to the user's sites, thus enabling the user to navigate without having to manually input log-in or password codes to gain access to the links.
The above-described service uses a server to present a user-personalized application that may be displayed as an interactive home page that contains all of his listed sites (hyperlinks) for easy navigation. The application lists the user's URL's in the form of hyperlinks such that a user may click on a hyperlink and navigate to the page wherein login, if required, is automatic, and transparent to the user.
The application described above also includes a software agent that may be programmed to perform scheduled tasks for the user including returning specific summaries and updates about user-account pages. A search function is provided and adapted to cooperate with the software agent to search user-entered URL's for specific content if such pages are cached somewhere in their presentable form such as at the portal server, or on the client's machine.
An enhancement to the system described above and known to the inventors is taught in Ser. No. 09/323,598, also included in the cross-reference section. In this teaching a summary software agent is provided to execute on the Portal server. The summary software agent is adapted to access Internet destinations, retrieve information according to pre-programmed criteria, and summarize the retrieved information for delivery to the subscriber.
In addition to the summary agent, a configuration and initiation interface is provided for a subscriber to set up and start a summary search. Summary searches may be configured for individual clients as templates stored and retrieved at the Internet-connected server. In some cases summary information is stored to be later downloaded at request of the subscriber, and in others the information is immediately pushed to the client/subscriber. Also in some embodiments automatic log-ins are performed for the subscriber at each Internet site according to a data stored for the subscriber at the Portal server.
It has occurred to the inventor that in addition to ordering WEB-summaries from a service through an interactive configuration and initiation interface, a user may desire that certain URLs be periodically summarized for content without the prerequisite of user configuration of the site for obtaining the information. Further, a user may desire to be empowered with control ability to effect or cancel such action without having to navigate to a special section of the service's Portal server for the purpose of deleting or editing information stored in user-profiled sites.
What is clearly needed is a network-based bookmark management and WEB-summary system that may be controlled from a single user interface while a user is actively browsing the Internet. Such a system would empower users with an efficient method for ordering periodic and automatic WEB-summaries for certain WEB-sites without the pre-requisite of pre-configuration.